During the last budget period, the Cancer Center has introduced sweeping changes that affected its administrative infrastructure, decision-making process, scientific realignment of Programs and Shared Resources and expansion of educational and mentoring activities. These changes were directed by a comprehensive, inclusive and transparent strategic planning process that involved all scientific, administrative and educational stakeholders in the Cancer Center. A combination of internal Center-wide consultative sessions, including annual scientific and planning retreats, and in-depth feedback by a newly configured Cancer Center External Advisory Board, contributed to make the strategic planning process a successful endeavor, creating a set of strategic directives {Strategic comparatives) that guided the comprehensive reorganization of the Cancer Center during the last budget period. The resulting 2012 Cancer Center Strategic Plan refined the Center's long-term vision in the continuum of basic, translational and patient-oriented research, streamlined operation and decision-making, and identified concrete opportunities for scientific expansion, thematic faculty recruitment and development of new, multidisciplinary research themes. Overall, the consultative tools that enabled the strategic planning process will continue to provide a fundamental asset for the Cancer Center in the next budget period, ensuring a nimble and research-oriented administrative infrastructure, opportunity-driven decision-making, comprehensive feedback from external advisors and dynamic refinement of research priorities and scientific themes. Building on the successful growth ofthe Cancer Center in the last project period in terms of collaborative contributions and cancer-focused research funding, these planning and consultative processes as supported by the CCSG budget will continue to play an indispensable role in further advancing the cancer research agenda during the upcoming faculty and facility expansion.